He Is Believed to Desire to Confront Britain With Peace Consolidating 'New Order'

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WORLD DOMINION HIS GOAL

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This Involves Avoidance of a War That Will Regenerate British Staying Qualities

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Adolf
Hitler's possible choices of campaign plans for 1941 are further
examined here by an eminent German writer who was high in the Nazi
party's inner circle until 1935, when he broke with Herr Hitler and left
Germany. He is the author of "The Revolution of Nihilism" and "The
Voice of Destruction." He is now in London.

By HERMANN RAUSCHNING

Adolf
Hitler and his generals are not ignorant of the weaknesses of the
German situation. His efforts will therefore be directed toward a
fundamental change in the situation rather than strictly limited
objectives.

But it is open to question whether the
German High Command can effect this fundamental change by purely
military methods. Even today its actions are dictated by the enemy, and
so Herr Hitler may be compelled to undertake against his own will
actions that offer a doubtful prospect of success.

He
may therefore attempt to effect the fundamental change by political
methods in preference to military ones. Before the "Blitz" campaign he
always achieved his greatest successes with his policy of faits
accomplis. It would be conformable to his trend of thought to conceive
the idea of a fait accompli of peace.

It might be
possible, he would imagine, to render Great Britain's war against "the
new order" in Europe useless by inducing all allied and occupied
countries, and those already drawn into the Nazi sphere of influence, to
agree to his peace terms and declare their acceptance of a European
solidarity of interests from which all extraneous powers would be
excluded.Will Sow Doubts About War

Herr
Hitler's political warfare, with simple but effective slogans, broke
the morale of the French forces and civilian population. The political
premises for his new disintegration attempts will be found in
repetitions of his willingness to conclude a negotiated peace. They will
find fruitful soil in easily awakened doubts concerning the necessity
and possibility of continuing the war and in cleavage of public opinion
on this point.

An attack on Russia, for example, could
give him a good start, because the surprise at this unexpected turn of
events would cause many people to revise their opinion of him. If Herr
Hitler is really our bulwark against bolshevism, they would argue, why
make war on him?

But even this dramatic move would be
unnecessary for his purpose, since the present situation affords him
possibilities of effective peace propaganda. He has repeatedly sought to
make it clear to neutral diplomats and other distinguished visitors
that he has never desired war with the British Empire and would regard
its destruction as a world calamity. His proposed readiness for peaceful
cooperation with the British Empire on such a basis would always find
new channels of communication.

There is a grain of
truth in Herr Hitler's statement that he has never sought war with the
British. This is not merely due to the fact that his backers made it a
condition that he should avoid complications with Britain and the United
States, when they advocated the Chancellorship for him, and likewise
not because he fears the inexhaustible resources of the British Empire.
The real reason is rather to be sought in the desire of leading circles
in Germany to eschew any enterprise likely to hold up the disintegration
of the British Empire, which they deem inevitable, and lead to a
regeneration of the British nation.

War Held a Regenerator

To
understand this trend of thought aright, we must remember that it was
not only the Prussian military cast, but the Swabian Schiller who
extolled war as a regenerator of life. A war—so argue others besides the
Nazis—would regenerate all the power instincts and martial virtues of
the British nation which appeared to have degenerated before the
outbreak of hostilities. Far from hastening the breakup of the British
Empire, a war would tend to strengthen it and prolong British hegemony,
at least for another two or three generations. In well-informed
circles—and not merely German ones—the life of the British Empire was
estimated at another generation.

It is not
inconceivable that Herr Hitler would win over the small States and also
Italy, France and Spain to this project and strengthen the two latter
countries in their antagonism to Britain. As long as the present French
regime remains in power there can be no question of any similarity of
British and French war aims. If France does not become an actual
opponent of Britain, she will be resolved to pursue a more independent
policy. There can be no further question of a common entente policy.

We
might, indeed, interpret the situation in the sense that the three
Latin powers are vitally interested in seeing that neither Herr Hitler
nor Britain should win a decisive victory over the other. Europe is a
balance of great cultural powers which gives scope for various
combinations. And if the line of the new French policy is opposed to a
German or Russian hegemony of Europe, it is equally antagonistic to a
British one. Hence the new points of contact with Italy and Spain.
Moreover, this policy is the only one that gives Premier Mussolini a
chance to save something for his regime.

Whether such a
policy will serve the real interests of France is another question. It
is also doubtful whether it can be realized. French policy now seems to
assume some resemblance to the Russian policy in favoring a draw in
preference to the victory of one or other opponent. But that is just
what Herr Hitler desires, and therefore he will raise no objections to
this Latin bloc. On the contrary, he will be able to use it for his own
ends.

It would be quite in accordance with Herr
Hitler's trend of thought to force a peace on Britain against her will.
His estimation of public opinion in Britain and the United States leads
him to conclude that a moderate peace, achieved by negotiation, would
revive the isolation tendencies latent in both Anglo-Saxon powers.
Moreover, Nazi circles closely in touch with the Reichsfuehrer are
largely inspired by the idea of a revolution in the United States.

What
Herr Hitler really desires to achieve by a fait accompli peace is the
basis for a new propaganda campaign that would disintegrate Anglo-Saxon
morale as surely as his slogans broke the French morale last year. The
weaknesses of its ruling classes made the dissolution of this
"artificial creation" inevitable. Why, then, provoke a revival of life
and resistance power by a war? That is the real meaning of Herr Hitler's
declaration of friendship for Britain!

The one focus
point of his policy is therefore his belief in the irrevocable passing
of British world supremacy and the call to Germany to assume the
inheritance. His other focus point was and still is the elimination of
his continental rival, Russia, with whom a Germany rising to a position
of world power could never remain in permanent alliance, because there
can be only one supreme power in control of the Eurasian Continent.
While Britain can therefore be left to a gradual process of
disintegration, the Slavonic race must be destroyed by force before it
becomes a real menace to German world domination.

Peril in the British Collapse

The
sudden collapse of such a great institution as the British Empire would
also contain certain dangers for the victorious destroyer. The aim of Nazism is not the negative one comprised in the destruction of the
British Empire, but the positive extension of its own domination over
its essential component parts. A military overthrow would not exclude
the possibility that some of the key points would fall into foreign
hands.

In the event of a break-up of the British
Empire, Russia, Japan and the United States would be in a position to
annex valuable territories. Probably Nazism would be forced to yield
most of the overseas territories to other powers, in which case Germany
would be thrown back into her constricted continental situation. It is
possible that in the early stages of his development Herr Hitler may
have thought only in continental terms, but by now it has become clear
to him that world domination implies territories abutting on the ocean
and domination of those oceans.

Herr Hitler desires a
world empire and not merely a continental empire. Germany can grow only
slowly to such a position. She can best gain a footing overseas by
participation in overseas interests. That is the significance of the
much discussed slogan of a "junior partnership."

Similar
consideration formerly prevented Nazism from attempting a spectacular
"march on Berlin" and induced it to substitute the notion of gaining
power by means of a backdoor assumption of government and a slinking
into key positions from which partners could be ousted at a convenient
moment.

During this present conflict, Herr Hitler has
still clung tenaciously to his idea of avoiding war to the knife with
Britain and employing political means to wriggle out of hostilities by a
fait accompli of peace. If the process of the British Empire's
disintegration can be thus continued, he will argue, in a way in which
will let its fruits fall into his lap, and if this process can be
hastened, then it would be better to employ political methods that would
tempt British commercial instincts rather than military means that
would awaken the British sporting spirit.